Star Trek: Generations (Movie Review)

Star Trek: Generations is the first movie to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation(TNG).

Because of this, I will allow the presence of Star Trek: The Original Series(TOS) cast. And who doesn’t like a bit of Shatner, am I right?

Some very cool stuff in this movie, and not just for fans of TNG. Here are some highlights:

THE NEXUS

The Nexus is a realm where space and time have no meaning.

You can jump back and forth through time, and even change the circumstances of your past or future by just thinking about it. It’s a place where you are always happy and you never want to leave.

Sounds tempting, right?

The downside of the Nexus is that it’s not real. It’s like a living dream. If you happen to travel to the Nexus and then you are forced to leave, you always have this urge to go back, which may make your current reality unbearable.

The only way to get to the Nexus is to be in a place where the doorway (an energy ribbon that travels through space) passes through.

GUINAN

I’ve always thought Guinan was awesome because she’s just so wise and experienced.

We learn more about her and her species in Star Trek: Generations. We find out that she has been in the Nexus and it was so hard to accept that she might never return.

Whoopi Goldberg was a great choice to play such a wise character. So much confidence – you want to believe everything she says even though she may just have a feeling and no proof.

LURSA AND B’ETOR

Though they aren’t the nicest Klingons, it’s always interesting to see these two in action.

Klingons are good to have in a movie as the aggressors, as that is their nature and they are proud of it. Klingons have been portrayed as a patriarchal society – only males can sit on the High Council – but apparently females are allowed to command a vessel, which is progress.

Unfortunately the respect they have earned from their crew is likely due to the fact that they are likely to kill anyone who gets in their way, and that they have powerful allies.

MALCOLM MCDOWELL

Truly a mad man. He is of the same species as Guinan so he has a lot of time left to live.

The only downside to his long life is that he has not learned, as Guinan did, to live outside the Nexus.

He is so desperate to return to the Nexus. He becomes an expert in astrophysics and figures out how to move the energy ribbon to pick him up on a planet.

But he is so crazy that he doesn’t care that he has to destroy stars and planets, and kill millions of people, to achieve his goal.

DATA GETS HIS EMOTION CHIP

Maybe I was naive to think that having emotions would be a good thing for Data.

What I should have realized, and what we all know, is that emotions are distracting. So at the very least, he’s not focused when he’s laughing or crying or being scared.

I’m a little surprised that the emotion chip didn’t come with any way to regulate it. When Data turns it on he becomes immediately overwhelmed with emotion like a child. As a result, the emotion chip becomes more of a curse than a blessing.

Data’s dad was a smart guy. Couldn’t he have built the chip to allow access to a little bit of emotion at time?

When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Seems like a guy who builds androids wouldn’t have a very good grasp on the effect of emotions, would he?